I'm on my third pregnancy now, and I am still struggling with handling pregnancy weight gain. I don't have a problem with the weight gain itself, but each time, I become obsessed with staying within the "recommended" ranges. Problem is, my body wants to gain more, even though my brain doesn't.
With my first pregnancy, it ended at 10 weeks, and I had already gained more than the recommended 5 pounds max for first tri. With my second (LO), I just barely stayed at the very high end of the recommended range for the entirety of my pregnancy, and to do so, I drove myself crazy (eating only salads for lunch, denying my cravings, working out 4 times per week until the end). Right now, I am 8 weeks along and already have gained 5+ pounds and am freaking out.
I have two problems. One is that I had hoped to relax and enjoy this pregnancy (with luck, it will be my last), but I feel like if I don't obsess and stay on top of this, I will gain WAY too much. It doesn't help that I've started each pregnancy at a higher weight either, and losing it is not that easy. The other problem is that I don't want my daughter to see me obsessing and hating my body during this time. As a kid/teen, my mom was constantly calling herself fat and I have issues from that and I don't want LO to see that from me.
Anyone else struggling with these issues? I know the recommended weight gain ranges are there to try to keep us healthy, but sometimes I feel like they make things worse.